Iconic Rockwell Painting Displayed at White House

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Two women look at "The Problem We All Live With" at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Massachusetts.

Updated at 8:16 PM EDT on Thursday, Jul 7, 2011

A Norman Rockwell painting depicting a landmark moment in the civil rights movement has been loaned to the White House.

The Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Ma., said the loan of “The Problem We All Live With” was requested by President Barack Obama in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Ruby Bridges's integration of a New Orleans school in November 1960. It was painted for a January 1964 issue of Look magazine.

It will be exhibited at the White House until Oct. 31.

The oil-on-canvas painting depicts the 6-year-old Bridges, who is black, being escorted to school by four U.S. marshals. A splattered tomato and a racial epithet are on the wall behind her.

The 36-inch-by-58-inch painting marked a milestone in Rockwell's career to more direct social commentary.